Island



G. H. KNIGHT.

I I Inking Pad. I No. 230,424. Patentedluly 27,1889

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1 1 wlll WITNESSES.

N. PETERS PNOTD-LITHOGRAPHER. WAsKjNG'T ON UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFIC GEORGE H. KNIGHT, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE. FOURTH OF HIS RIGHT TO ALFRED 'H. WILLARD, OF SAME PLACE.

lNKlNG-PAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 230,424, dated July 27, 1880.

' Application filed September 26, 1879. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. KNIGHT, of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Inking-Pads; and

I do hereby declare that the'following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

[ My improved pad is specially intended for use in post-offices or wherever an ink-pad is subjected to severe and constant use.

My design is to furnish an article the construction of which is such that it will endure for a great length of time under the severest usage to which in its proper employment it can be put.

Heretofore ink-pads have been made of a cushion of soft material capable of absorbing a considerable quantity of printers ink and faced with a covering of cloth, felt, or flannel. So soon as the repeated blows of the stamp upon the flat surface of the cloth facing have worn a hole through it the pad becomes worth- 2 5 less, and its place must be supplied by a new one, thereby involving, in addition to the cost of the article, a great loss in waste of theink which 'the rejected cushion contains. In a large post-office an in k-pad will not endure the 0 usage which it receives beyond three or four days.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l represents, in perspective, one form of my improved pad mounted on a base and ready for use.

3 5 Fig. 2 shows, in perspective, a portion of such a pad with one end of the strip of fibrous material forming it unsecured.

My invention consists in constructing an ink-pad which is homogeneous in character and composition, as hereinafter explained.

One method is to make it of fibrous material composed of spun threads or filaments of fibrous material packed side by side in the form of a cushion, and arranged vertically, so

4 5 as to receive the blows of the stamp in inking directly upon their uncovered ends. The ends of the threads so packed constitute the face of the pad, and the effect of wear-from the blows of the stamp is not to change the char- 5o actor of the pad itself, although the original in g my improved pad is illustrated in the draw- 5 5 ings.

Along strip of cotton or woolen cloth or other suitable material is wound in a helical 'coil, so as to form a cushion of, say, five inches in diameter and two inches in thickness. It is clear that the warp or the filling threads of the fabric (depending upon whether the strip is cut transversely of or lengthwise of the cloth) will be packed side by side, and will stand vertically, so that their aggregated ends will form the face of the pad. A compress of any convenient form should be used to confine the coil or devices, such as are shown at A, for holding the folds and preventing the coil from unrolling. The pad so made should be mounted on or secured to a block or base-piece, B, as shown.

If the pad be made from a strip or strips of cloth, as described, the warp-threads (in case the strip or strips be cut lengthwise of the piece of cloth) will occupy parallel horizontal planes, and from time to time as the pad wears the exposed threads can be'unraveled and rejected, leaving only the ends of the vertically-standing filling-threads to receive the blow of the stamp to be inked.

Another and equally good way of making my pad will be to take a quantity of spun yarn, and, after cutting the same into lengths of two inches, more or less, according to the desired thickness for the pad, arrange the same parallel with each other, and confine the mass by a compress of any convenient form, and which may be a band or hoop of metal or wood. The pad so made should have its faces 0 shaved or trimmed so as to form a flat plane, and it should be mounted for convenience upon "abase-piece or support, as B.

While I prefer to make use of strips of textile fabrics or of spun fibrous material, as I 5 have described, an excellent pad may be made from strips of buckskin, commonly called wash-leather, or from any similar soft material which is an absorbent of printers ink. A pad so made will be within my invention, 10o

for the reason that it will be homogeneous as to its character and composition throughout its entire thickness.

An advantage which my improved ink-pad possesses is that its face can be dressed off with a sharp tool by placing the pad in the chuck of a lathe, and the depressions worn in its face he thereby removed, and the surface brought again to a flat plane; or if this is not convenient to be done, the pad maybe reversed in position after one face has become too irregular, and a fresh true face be thereby obtained, equally as serviceable as the one first used.

What 1 claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

back of the pad, and firmly clamped for evenly 2o compressing it, and afl'ording an inking-surface upon the ends or edges of the component material, as set forth.

GEORGE H. KNIGHT.

Witnesses:

GEORGE FULLER, M. H. BARTON. 

